Russia may install a 77YA6Voronezh missile defence radar in its southwestern region of Transdniestria.

The move is being reported as a riposte to plans by NATO to install land-based Raytheon RIM-161C SM-3 Block-IB surface-to-air missiles in Romania as part of the Alliance’s European Phased Adaptive Approach initiative. These missiles are expected to be deployed at the Romanian air force base at Develselu in the south of the country, with the base being declared operational in 2015.

There has been no information regarding theVoronezh radar variant which maybe deployed to the region. The Voronezh radar is known to be produced in three main versions: The Voronezh-M and Voronezh-VP radars work in the 30-300 megahertz VHF range, while the Voronezh-DM operates across the 300MHz to one gigahertz UHF range.

Voronezh radars are thought to have a surveillance range of around 4,200km (2,267nm).